Specifically, Apple agreed to pay about $350 million in cash and stock for the privately held NeXT and an additional $50 million to cover its debts, reported CNET at the time.

To put that in terms adjusted for inflation, the $400 million price tag in 1996 would be like about $613 million today. And that’s for a company that wasn’t considered in its time to be much of a commercial success. The pricey NeXT computers never sold well and the company eventually left the hardware business to concentrate on software.

Parts of the NeXT software wound up in the next generation of the Mac operating system.

When Apple announced the purchase, it was sort of vague what Jobs’ role would be. The company said only that he would report to Apple’s then-CEO and chairman Gil Amelio.

But Jobs wasn’t built to report to someone else at a company that he founded. By September, Amelio was out and Jobs was named interim CEO. Then the “interim” was dropped. And the rest, shall we say, is history.

Apple Computer, Inc. today announced its intention to purchase NeXT Software Inc., in a friendly acquisition for $400 million. Pending regulatory approvals, all NeXT products, services, and technology research will become part of Apple Computer, Inc. As part of the agreement, Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO of NeXT Software, will return to Apple — the company he co-founded in 1976 — reporting to Dr. Gilbert F. Amelio, Apple’s Chairman and CEO.

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